The Chinese men's volleyball team appeared at their first open training session Monday afternoon at the newly-renovated Capital Indoor Stadium.
Captain Shen Qiong, spikers Cui Jianjun, Yuan Zhi, Yu Dawei, setter Jiao Shuai and libero Ren Qi is highly possible to be the team's starting line-up, almost the same squad of China at the just-ended World League tournament.
During the 90-minute training, the team, all in their newly-designed red-white jersey, were divided into two groups with the main squad all on one side.
"The guys are all in good shape and we're happy there is no seriuos injuries now," said Song Weiping, the team's doctor.
Head coach Zhou Jian'an seems to be more relaxed while dealing with media than his counterpart Chen Zhonghe, head coach of the Chinese women's volleyball team, who zipped their mouth almost all along their first training course at another competition venue Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium also on Monday afternoon.
"I hope my team can step on a new stage at the Games," said Zhou, who was once captain of the men's national team in the 1990s.
China, ranked 21st in the world, the lowest among the 12 competitors, has practically set their goal to enter the final eight.
The latest and also the only Olympic show of the men's team went back to 1984, when the team headed for the Los Angeles in haste as the substitution of the defaulter former Soviet Union and finished 8th.
Qualifying the Beijing Games as host, the team is grouped with the Athens runner-up Italy, the World Cup bronze medalist Bulgaria, the United States, ranked third, Japan and Venezuela.
Zhou showed some confidence as China finished a record seventh place at the World League tournament with a 6-6 win-loss record.
"The players has been greatly inspired by the Wolrd League trip. I'm glad they have enough confidence and show strong determination to fight and to win, which is just what I want," he said.
Twelve men's teams are divided into two groups to compete in the preliminary round of the Olympic volleyball tournaments in Beijing that run through Aug. 10-18. The knockout stages run from Aug. 20 to 24. China will play against its first opponent Bulgaria on Aug. 10.
(Xinhua News Agency August 5, 2008)